10/4/2023–|Last updated: 4/10/202311:37 AM (Makkah)
Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that dozens of settlers stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque and performed Talmudic rituals at the Chain Gate, while an officer and a soldier of the occupation army were injured following targeting a patrol in the city of Nablus on Monday morning.
Since before the dawn prayer, the Israeli police have prevented Palestinians under the age of 50 from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform the prayer.
The Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) stated that hundreds of settlers stormed the mosque’s courtyards from the Mughrabi Gate, with heavy security from the Israeli occupation police, who continued to impose strict measures and restrictions on Palestinians entering the mosque on the fifth day of the “Jewish Passover” holiday.
For its part, the Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem said that 482 settlers, in groups, stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque since the morning, and carried out provocative tours in its courtyards, before leaving from the Chain Gate side under strict protection from the occupation police.
The occupation police deployed its members and special units since the morning in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa and at its gates to secure settler intrusions, and continued to restrict the entry of worshipers at dawn and prevented many from entering.
The city of Jerusalem has been witnessing tension since the beginning of last week, following the Israeli police stormed Al-Aqsa at night, and prevented the worshipers from performing I’tikaaf in it. Which led to clashes across the Palestinian territories.
An officer and a soldier were injured
Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that an officer and a soldier of the occupation army were injured following their patrol was targeted in the city of Nablus.
And the spokesman for the occupation army announced that a joint force of the army and border guards entered the city of Nablus to arrest Palestinians.
He added that fire was fired at one of its patrols as it withdrew from the city. As a result, an officer and a soldier were wounded by shrapnel from the bullets that targeted the patrol.
Close south of Nablus
And the Israeli Channel “12” revealed that the Israeli army issued a permit to organize a march for settlers today, Monday, starting from the Za’tara checkpoint (south of Nablus), towards the “Avitar” outpost, which is established on Mount Sabih in the town of Bita.
According to the channel, the Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir, along with other ministers and members of the Knesset, will participate in the march.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned – in the strongest terms – what was reported by the Israeli media regarding the intention of approximately 27 ministers and members of the Israeli Knesset to participate in a demonstration and march in the occupied West Bank.
The ministry considered that this march is “a dangerous escalation and provocation of the Palestinian people, and an extension of the incitement calls of the Israeli right and the fascist right to deepen settlement activity at the expense of the land of the State of Palestine.”
Last year, Israeli settlers established the “Avitar” settlement outpost on private Palestinian land on Mount Sabih in the town of Beita (south of Nablus), before the Israeli authorities decided to evacuate it, following months of Palestinian protests.
Tensions have escalated in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of this year, and it has also intensified by firing missiles at Israel from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, and responding to it with Israeli air and artillery bombardment last Thursday, then two shooting and run-over operations in the West Bank and Israel that resulted in 3 deaths – including an Italian tourist – and injury. 5 more.
